JON Stanhope's decision on Wednesday to announce the duplication of the Gungahlin Drive Extension bears all the hallmarks of political expediency and spoiling tactics, not least in the context of October's Assembly election. But it is, in most respects, the right decision anyway.

No doubt its timing was affected by reports that the Liberals, under Zed Seselja, were to announce the next day a promise that the Liberals, if elected, would allocate $93million to upgrade the two-lane road into a four-lane parkway within 212 years. Presumably, too, the Stanhope promise of not quite so much money, but to be spent over a longer time frame will also spoil Liberal intentions to use the existing inadequate road as an example of Labor failure.

That's politics and, if it is cynical, other cynical people with a memory will probably remember that it was obstruction by the local Liberals, whether carried out at territorial or federal level, that made the original expressway project more protracted and expensive than originally planned, and might well have prevented its being built at all.

This will well have suited some of those, mostly in North Canberra, who had been vehemently opposed to the GDE on environmental grounds. But it was pretty tough on the burgeoning population of Gungahlin, whose access to Civic, South Canberra, Woden and Tuggeranong was quite constricted.

Was and and as it turns out still is. A four-lane parkway was always intended, and, probably, was always needed. The Government decided to proceed in stages and, even at the opening earlier this year, indicated that completion of the road, by duplication, would be four to 10 years away. But it is already clear that duplication is necessary to deal with the volume of traffic.

Such solutions not only directly take away money that might have been used on more economical (and less polluting) public transport, but create a demand for more and more infrastructure to deal with parking and traffic problems caused by our addiction to the car.

These old arguments attract greater impetus because of extra pressure to do something about global warming and pollution and our dependence on hydrocarbons.

All these arguments are true enough, up to a point, and must go into the balance whenever public resources are being rationed. What must also go into the balance is the fact that the planning, right from the start, of traffic flows, and access and egress from Gungahlin, was inadequate and that measures such as the GDE, partial or completed, are only the beginning of tackling them after the fact.

Gungahlin's existing infrastructure still falls well short of that which other areas take for granted, and will do so even after the GDE is duplicated. In some cases, the corridors and land once intended to ease access problems have been alienated by the citizens of better served areas who now regard these corridors as part of their natural environment.

It was interesting to note that this very week saw a renewal of calls from North Canberra residents for the final removal from the map of Monash Drive, pencilled in by the National Capital Development in the early 1960s as dedicated for a future major roadway along the Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura side of Duffy Street, Ainslie.

Those buying leasehold in this area were perfectly aware that a through road was planned, if not for the immediate future. In due course, many have come to see their easy access to the mountainside as a personal right, often dressing up plain vested interests with claims about the environment and grasslands, as well as implicit reproach that residents further out are selfish, insensible and addicted to motor cars.

The consequence is not only to deny Gungahlin residents easy movement across Canberra, but seriously to compromise traffic management in North Canberra, particularly by the overuse of Limestone and Majura avenues, which were never intended as major corridors. Such problems are, of course, compounded by the appalling planning and developer greed that saw Ainslie Avenue, originally intended as a major thoroughfare, closed for a shopping mall. And by the poor planning of traffic around Canberra Airport, aggravated by the failure to develop Monash Drive.

The Stanhope Government committed itself, at its last budget, to a wholesale redevelopment of Canberra infrastructure. The alternative Seselja government has made some criticisms of specific decisions, but has not seemed to oppose the broad strategy. That's good, because there is a considerable backlog, not only of new work needing to be done but also of failing services needing refurbishment and renewal.

There is no reason why the disposition of available funds, and the priority attached to different tasks, should not be an election issue. Yet it would be a pity if instant political advantage were the primary driver of the process.